Friend Pete called earlier in the Saturday AM to let me know that Spring stocking had begun at ol' Green Lake... been so busy lately that I missed the report. Change of plans, and met Pete at 6:30 AM on the southwest shoreline, just west of the amphitheater. Lines in the water by 6:45. Temp at the outset was 45 degrees, water temp has risen with the more moderate temp the past week, to a surprising 50 degrees art the shoreline. Began with hatchery nugget Power Eggs on one rig, nightcrawler on the other (might be a big Brown cruising around!). Ten minutes in and my rod tip began that magical dance we all love so much... reeled in an 11 1/2" Rainbow (hatchery nugget PE). Easy pickin's today, right?... NOT! No more hits until about 9:00 when Pete had a good hit and reeled in a solid 12" Rainbow. About 10:00 I had another hit and reeled in a 11" Rainbow... then Pete picked up his second, an 11" Rainbow, just before he had to leave at 11:00. Rain had begun at about 10:30, light at first, then by 11:30 was heavy downpour... lasted until I left at about 2:00. No other bites.
Great to see lots of other fishermen out on the lake, bankies like us, those with kayaks, small boats & rafts, even a float-tube or two. Saw maybe four other fish caught around us... visited with Quadfather a bit... just great to see others enjoying this great sport.
It was apparent from the outset that the birds had not missed the stocking report. I was amazed to see swarms of Cormorants and Common Mergansers diving into the lake to fish. Cormorants have been scarce on the lake the past month or two, as the fish haven't been plentiful. Now they are back with a vengeance... watched them feeding all day long. At about 12:30 I watched a huge flock fishing down the east side of the lake, turning the corner at the amphitheater and coming across directly in front of me, at about 1:00, from thirty to fifty feet out, cutting a swath through are area I was fishing. Counting as fast as I could ( a bit difficult because of their constant diving) I counted at no less than one hundred Cormorants... in the short time they were directly in front of me, I stopped counting when I had seen at least two dozen trout gulped down by these voracious eating machines. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out, that a hundred Cormorants consuming two or three trout a day, seven days a week... in two weeks time will have consumed nearly half of the 7,400 fish planted by the WDFW. The WDFW is doing a great job of feeding the birds, while we fishermen are left at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to fish allocation. It's nice to know (I guess) that all our fishing license fees are contributing to a healthy and growing number of fish predators. In my nearly fifty years of fishing W. Washington lowland lakes, I have never, ever seen anything close to the flocks of birds that feed upon OUR financially produced resource. Seems to me the WDFW stocking policy is FOR THE BIRDS!!! PTL!

Note: In pic of fish, can see the scar of a Cormorant beak near the tail of the upper fish.

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